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In other news, Sai still sucks at taking the temperature of a room. "Billboard Brow" and "Ino-Pig" are as forbidden as saying fat slurs around Choji. Getting two fists to the face meant that the girls went easy on Sai.

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Guren's henchninjas get owned by half of the new and improved Leaf team, while the other half get started on containing the Three Tails. Akamaru demonstrates that whizzing like a lawn sprinkler can be useful. Those wacky ninjas; they'll weaponize anything! Lee shows off his ability to see with his heart. I bet his feet smell and his nose runs too. Naruto pisses Guren off with repeated accusations that she doesn't care about The Kid.

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Shino's anti-crystal bugs make their debut, and the combined efforts of the Leaf are able to force Guren to flee. Meanwhile, Tobi has to make his own way after annoying Deidara, and manages to find "a suspicious lake." What makes it suspicious? Was it lurking in the shadows, wearing a trench-coat? Turns out that it's the lake where everyone is fighting over the Three Tails.

Ino is still the weak link in setting up the seal on the Three Tails.

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If I were Daedara, I might have bit on the "I'll let you see inside my mask." Funny how the Akatsuki seem to arrange teams based on maximizing the annoyance factor. (If they knew they were going after an aquatic tailed beast, why not send their shark guy?)

Orochimaru understanding human nature is pretty creepy, really.

Edited March 25, 2016 by lathspel

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I'm not too hard on Ino. Girl is walking on water. That's a thing with these ninja . . . it's not even a special move. You don't shout "JESUS NO JUTSU!!" before doing it. You just have to have chakra control. Which reminds me . . . how does Rock Lee do that, when he's supposed to be a putz at ninjutsu and genjutsu? Or is it just that big of a badass that he can overcome his shortcomings?

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Four if you count the Three Tails. Five if you count Guren and the Kid gradually splitting off from Orochimaru's faction.

Naruto managed to use the Frog Spit technique in a combat situation! Not with particularly spectacular results, mind you, but he managed to do it. Maybe that's his new hammer, and everything looks like a nail to him.

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Naruto is trapped in the belly of the Three Tails. The possessor of a Tailed Beast is trapped within a Tailed Beast. Is this the anime version of a turducken? Anyway, he and Guren fight, talk, and end up trying to escape mini versions of the Beast. Kabuto gives the remaining supporting villains a deadly power-up. It looks like his version of Orochimaru's Curse Mark. And I kinda hate Toonami for showing GIFs of Rock Lee in action, only for that footage not to air this week.

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Here's a question: If the Leaf Village has this technique that will seal a tailed beast without needing someone to seal it into, then why didn't they use it on the Nine-Tails instead of saddling Naruto with all that misery? I know, I know...filler.

4 hours ago, lathspel said:

So Kabuto is a skin collector? I vaguely remember that. Nice that his weapon is a scalpel, although head to head Naruto seems to have an edge.

I never really thought about it before, but it makes sense that he would be. His boss Orochimaru was wearing someone's skin when we first met him.

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So basically nobody died (except the supposedly tough Anbu Black Ops and Kabuto's minions), and Yukimaru is back with some female monks? I'm a bit dissatisfied with how quickly that wrapped up, it's like we were going to be late for Naruto annoying people back in the Leaf village or something.

Of course the way you capture a turtle is to flip it on its back, why didn't I think of that? And presumably it's easier for the Akatsuki to drain a Tailed Beast with no Jinchuriki to deal with?

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Now I understand why Tobi was allowed to join the Akatsuki: He's the designated chew-toy, like one of those indestructible rubber dog bones.

I wonder what the deal was with all the little three-tails that were inside the Three-Tails. Was it getting ready to unleash a flood of little walking disasters on the world? As if nine Tailed Beasts wasn't enough.

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This week: Orochimaru isn't feeling too well, and Kabuto is worried. Orochimaru wants Sasuke's body...er, that is, he wants to get inside his...wants to use...uh, take over! He wants to take over Sasuke's body. Sasuke decides that he wants to keep his body Orochimaru-free, and tries to kill him. O-chan reveals that he's made of snakes, which should surprise no one. They fight! Meanwhile, back in the Leaf, Tsunade receives reports.

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That's probably the most blatant example of Death By Flashback that I've ever seen. Up until now Orochimaru has had approximately 30 seconds worth of character development over the entire franchise, but this episode gives him almost 20 minutes and then kills him. That's the sort of thing you expect to happen to a minor character, not one of the major forces of a show.

And O-chan's big motivation for being such a naughty ninja? He wants to learn all the jutsu, which means that he needs time, which means that he needs to be immortal, which means that he has to be a bad guy. Talk about a bad case of hoarding.

2 hours ago, lathspel said:

I really enjoyed the Orochimaru back story. How much, if any, was shown in the original Naruto?

I'm not convinced he's gone, of course.

Very little of it was shown until now. I think there was a brief bit of the scene where he was caught studying Bad Jutsu by the Third Hokage shown previously, but that's it.

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Saw a close-up of Young Tsunade. Kinda thought she looked like Edward Elric. And yeah, I don't think we got many flashbacks from the original series, if any at all. We get stuff with Orochimaru and the Sonin (Tsunade and Jirayiah), working with Anko, and meeting up with the Akatsuki, but the Chunin Exams and the war on the Leaf? Not covered. I'm guessing that would have taken two episodes. And no, I don't think Orochimaru is dead. Just seems too easy.

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I would have described Young Tsunade as looking like a blonde Sakura, in the same way that Naruto looks like Young Jiraiya and Young Orochimaru resembles Sasuke. Funny how each of the Legendary Sannin ended up with an apprentice that looks a lot like them. Seems a bit narcissistic to me.

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Loads of flashbackery this week as Sasuke recruits an Orochimaru research subject named Suigetsu, from the Hidden Mist village, who has the ability to transform into water and back. Suigetsu has pointy teeth and a powerful hankering to obtain the Executioner's Sword which was last seen being used by Zabuza back in the first season of Naruto. Much to-ing and fro-ing follows, along with a certain amount of fighting and bullying, and the sword is finally recovered. Next up: Getting a new recruit named Karin for the new Team Sasuke.

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LittleKuriboh's spoof on the abridged series based on Naruto isn't that big of a priority to him, but it's a fun way to look back at the early days of the anime. Here's the playlist . . . for the Bridge/Zabuza arc, start with "Milkshake no Justu."

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It's funny how training with that infamous monologuer Orochimaru has made Sasuke even more enigmatic. By the end, Suigetsu is practically skipping and yapping around him like the little puppy orbiting the stoic bulldog in Looney Tunes.

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Sasuke continues his recruitment drive and picks up Karin. After some will she or won't she, she says yes, for now, as long as she's going the same way he is. But really it's yes! because she's in love with Sasuke's aura/chakra.

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Sasuke, Moisture Guy, and the Chakra Detector go to the Northern Hideout and recruit the guy that Orochimaru used to create Curse Mark Juice (now available in many different flavors!). Naruto manages to piss off both Sakura and Tsunade, resulting in minor injuries for himself and Pervy Sage. He also gets the news that his boy-crush/rival has killed Orochimaru, and that no, it doesn't mean that Sasuke is coming back to the Leaf.

On Monday, June 20, 2016 at 7:43 PM, lathspel said:

It occurs to me that Naruto may be ticked off once he sees that Sasuke has built himself a new team, without any help from the Leaf.

Given their past rivalry, the logical course here would be for Naruto to build a new team too.

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It's been several episodes so I have to say: man, Sasuke walks slooowly. I know he has all this intense emo solemnity to project, but I swear we could fit twice as much in an episode if he walked at a normal pace.

Also, I like how Naruto says "Pervy Sage". It's always such a happy greeting.

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Sasuke recruits Jugo, who's kind of an uncontrollable death machine except when Sasuke is around. We learn all about his sad history with Kimimaro. You might recall Kimimaro as the guy who used his own bones as weapons, and who nearly killed both Lee and Gaara near the end of Naruto. Sasuke dubs his new group Hibi (snake or snakes), and he still plans to kill his brother.

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I knew Kimmimaro looked familiar. Looks like Sasuke is ready to murder Itachi. It'll probably take over a year to get a resolution to that story. Also liked the cut to the Leaf in the end. "Oh, shit! This anime isn't titled Sasuke! We gotta get the real lead on screen!!"

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We take a break from current events this week, and get some flashbackery about Young Kakashi on the cusp of Jonin-hood. Back in the day he was all about "screw your comrades; follow the rules", which is the exact opposite of what he taught Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura when they were playing "grab my ding-a-ling" out in the forest as a training exercise. We see that one of the Uchiha clan was a teammate, and that Kakashi didn't have his Sharingan yet. There was much squabbling over the teammates vs. rules issue.

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I found it funny that the characters and traits were shuffled among the males. Sadly, Rin came across as a less-annoying Sakura. Funny that Kakashi had his back to the "camera" sans mask. I'm guessing he'll wind up short one eye and get Obito's soon, as well as the Sharrigan.

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Lantern7, you are correct! Pick up your free internet at the home office.

All the classic (or cliche, your call) bittersweet moments are there: Kakashi reconciles with Obito before his death, and in turn Obito gives him the Sharingan, with assistance from Rin's medical techniques. Also, Kakashi kills the Bad Ninja who killed Obito, and he uses the Sharingan to do it.